The Week Ahead: Unemployment Rate, Food Show, Nagoya Mayor Campaign

Monday: Japan Airlines holds its monthly press meet on Monday. JAL President Kazuo Inamori will share his assessment of how turning around the ailing carrier is faring.

Tuesday: Japan releases jobless figures for January expected to show the rate remained stubbornly around 5%. The unemployment figure was 4.9% in December.

Japan Airlines Corp.’s last remaining Boeing 747 will make its final flight Tuesday, marking the end of the carrier’s fleet of the jumbo jet that carried travelers for roughly four decades. The former national flag carrier is retiring the plane earlier than planned as part of restructuring efforts to free itself of the bankruptcy chains.

Foodex Japan, one of Asia’s biggest food and beverage trade shows, kicks off its four-day run on the outskirts of Tokyo.

About Japan Real Time

Japan Real Time is a newsy, concise guide to what works, what doesn’t and why in the one-time poster child for Asian development, as it struggles to keep pace with faster-growing neighbors while competing with Europe for Michelin-rated restaurants. Drawing on the expertise of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires, the site provides an inside track on business, politics and lifestyle in Japan as it comes to terms with being overtaken by China as the world’s second-biggest economy. You can contact the editors at japanrealtime@wsj.com